It’s time Catholics (and all Americans) examine the role of news media in society
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(OPINION) Journalism today is very different from the one many grew up with just a few decades ago. As recently as the 1990s, in a pre-internet world, you would have received the majority of your news from your local newspaper each morning. If you didn't get it there, you watched the evening news after dinner. That was it.
Today, there are thousands of news outlets and a dozen social media channels to tell us what is happening. The rise of the web changed the way we get news.
This also changed the way journalists report the news. Journalists no longer report the news. Instead, they try to give news context. Since anyone with a computer can watch the president’s speech live for themselves, there’s no need to report on what he said. Instead, reporting on the meaning of what he said matters more.
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This has resulted in less objectivity and more activism on the part of a journalist class. At the same time, journalism went from being a blue-collar profession into a white-collar one in the span of just two generations. Reporting went from being a trade into one where now an Ivy League degree matters.
Newsrooms also reflect this new demographic. They are also more secular and filled with young people who never learned civics in school.
This was the crux of my discussion at a two-day conference on March 10-11 held at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., entitled, “Journalism in a Post-Truth World.”
The conference — co-sponsored by Catholic broadcaster EWTN and Franciscan University of Steubenville — examined the state of the news media today, threats to freedom of speech and the hostility some have towards Catholics and other people of faith.
As many panelists noted during the course of the conference, the internet disrupted the traditional business model news outlets once employed. They are now forced to rely less on advertising (with an appeal to all readers and on objectivity) to paying subscribers. And those subscribers don’t want to be challenged. Instead, they want validation.
As a result, we see journalists behaving more like activists these days. Activists don’t have a duty to report on things that they think may be detrimental to their cause or distract from a particular narrative.
Journalists, on the other hand, are obligated — or at least expected — to report the facts, even if they go against a particular narrative.
For example, I have written extensively about the vandalism of Catholic churches in the United States over the past few years. This is something that 30 years ago would be what an editor would have called “a big story.” Instead, it is a big story only in the Catholic media world. Places like The New York Times and Washington Post haven’t reported on the trend.
It was at the very conclusion of the conference that Catholic Vote, a conservative political advocacy group, reported this past Sunday that the 300th attack against a Catholic church had occurred. The group’s tracker stretches back to May 2020.
Why the mainstream national press hasn’t covered this tragic trend goes directly to my original point on what is a journalist today. The journalist today is increasingly someone who lacks curiosity and doesn’t want to report on certain issues. They believe in managing narratives and keeping readers satisfied.
This is exactly the opposite of what a journalist should be. Technology may have changed, but an informed citizenry is what’s needed to maintain a flourishing democracy.
Clemente Lisi is a senior editor at Religion Unplugged and teaches journalism at The King’s College in New York City. He is the author of “The FIFA World Cup: A History of the Planet’s Biggest Sporting Event.” Follow him on Twitter @ClementeLisi.